Matthew J. Olson's Blog, page 7

beta

I am trying something I haven't tried before. I am having a beta reader for my next book. Dark Matter was returned by my editor last night and I'm busy accepting and rejecting changes (more like accepting almost all of the changes). Beta reading will begin soon!

Now if only I'd had a chance to beta test the puppy-cat relationship. I think we wouldn't have a puppy at the moment. I keep joking that we should get rid of the puppy and have even mentioned a few people that need a dog. But alas, the damn puppy has melted my heart, so I can't go through with shipping the dog off. And there is no way my cat is leaving!

I hope my beta reader will be done by my next post so I can announce the publication of my new book!

curiosity

Zailey's curiosity is cute. The other day my wife and I went away for the weekend. This was another trip where we took along the dog. We also tried a new thing: a back seat hammock.

The hammock was hung from the headrests of the seats (both the front and the back). The canvas could then rest on the back seat and protect it. It also served as a barrier from the dog being able to run up to the front seats.

Zailey decided that the barrier was a good place to stand on and look out. Besides being able to get attention from my wife and I, she also could watch the scenery flying by.

At one point, she ended up moving over to my left shoulder as I drove. She then rested her head there as she watched. I drove with my right hand so that I could reach up with my left to pet her.

Some of the vehicles or trees seemed to scare her. I couldn't pinpoint what it was, but something would make her grumble from time to time. All I could do was shush her and calm her in other ways.

She never did really calm down on the trip. She would lay down from time to time, but never really stayed still. She was just too excited about all the curious things she was seeing.

I see some curious things all the time in my writing. Sometimes, I come up with something that I had no idea I was going to do.

Take for instance a little scene I wrote last Friday before my trip. It was a scene that was not in my outline. I was meaning to just show my character starting a journey rather than just tell about it. I ended up doing so much more than that.

One of my less significant characters ended up in the scene. The interplay between this character and one of my main ones added so much to the little scene. There was a bit of humor in this interplay and it served to punch home more about the pressure that all of the characters feel. The entire scene was set up because I was curious to know what these two characters could do to move my story along.

Zailey is just a puppy and is curious about her surroundings. My curiosity is generating some interesting stuff and taking my writing to the next level. Who knows what Zailey and I will figure out tomorrow.

can't sit still

Last night, I was watching TV with my wife. I was laying on the couch and wanted to have a companion with me. I picked up Zailey and laid her down with me.

She loved the attention, but didn't want to stay still. She squirmed and squirmed while I was trying to pet her and hold her still.

Then Jynx walked by. Zailey couldn't be contained at this point because the damn cat was taunting her. I was only able to hold her for another minute or so before I couldn't hold her any more.

She inched her way off my belly and started to slide down the couch. I did grab her and put her back in her place once before I gave up and allowed her to get down.

Zailey and Jynx fought for a little bit before Zailey started to bark. Her bark is so shrilly that we had to break the two of them up. So much for watching TV peacefully.

Like Zailey, I can't sit still either. I've got so many projects right now, I hardly know which one I should do.

Part of my problem is that I am writing two novels right now. One of them, I have 28 of 49 planned chapters done. The other I have 5 of 44 planned chapters done. Though, I may end up cutting one of the chapters in the first novel (though, I hope I just need a significant rewrite). I also want to get a few more chapters into the second novel.

Then there are my short stories. I've backed off of writing them at the moment. Partly because I really want to accomplish more of the novel stuff. But, if I get an idea for a short story, I do still write it.

At least my not sitting still doesn't effect Jynx. Now if only we can get the dog to follow suit.

f*%&, that hurt

Zailey loves to jump. She jumps on the door when she wants in. She jumps when she sees me get her food. She jumps when she sees me get a biscuit or other treat. She jumps at Jynx when they fight. She jumps all the time.

Today, I gathered up some stuff to put away. I realized that the dog hadn't been out in a while. So before putting the stuff away, I lead her outside so that she could go potty. For some reason, she was excited to go outside with me.

Zailey starts jumping wildly and ends up landing a punch right to my groin. F*%&, that hurt. To make things worse, she bumped into the stuff I had in my hands. Of all things, my cell phone goes flying.

In the last five weeks, I've had 3 cell phones. My cell phone that I've had for almost 3 years, fell on a hardwood floor and the screen shattered. The replacement I got was a piece of junk, so I turned that back in and got a brand new one. The first attempt at getting a suitable phone cover did not pan out. I'm waiting for another phone cover now.

Seeing this phone go flying was like seeing my life pass before my eyes. I ended up getting a contract so that I could save 800 bucks. So I would have to pay full price or do an insurance replacement if my phone broke. Not to mention my phone is my life organizer and my credit card machine. To lose my phone would mean a huge loss to my life.

The phone hit the concrete of my back patio right on the corner of the phone. The corner dented and it did break the glass right in that corner. The phone is still usable, but hurt. F*%&!

I'm having trouble finding time to write this week. I do have a new chapter ready for next week's writing group, but I would rather have a second one ready in case we have time for me to share an extra chapter.

Being behind where I want to be makes me nervous. Since I'm also having other worries at the moment, my nervousness is hurting. Hopefully, my life can settle down to where I'm not so nervous.

Between nerves, being racked, and my phone getting hurt, I can't help but exclaim, "f*%&!"

on the nose

The other day, I was unwinding after a long day of work. As I am sitting there chatting with my wife, Jynx decides he wants loving. As temperamental as he is, I can't ignore the rare chances at affection.

So I let him climb on me. I was half laying and this allowed him to plop down on my chest with ease. As I am petting him, he decides to give me kisses.

My wife is not fond of kitty kisses. She thinks Jynx's tongue is too rough. I love the feeling of a cat licking me, so I enjoyed Jynx's kisses.

The location that Jynx was kissing me was somewhere he had never chosen before; he was kissing me right on the nose. I was amused by this choice.

I have no lack of choices in what to work on after being gone for as long as I was. I skipped going golfing this week so that I had a better chance of catching up on my chores, coin work, actual work, and writing.

I like to have two pieces of writing done before my writing group and I had a meeting this week. With traveling, I haven't had much time to write. I barely got the second one done right before group. It was a good thing too, because I ended up sharing both pieces and getting feedback on them.

I don't like getting things done so last minute. But getting it done right on the nose did feel as good as Jynx kisses on the nose.

what really matters

It's been over a week since I've seen my dog and cat. Since then, I've done some neat things. Many of these things I've done with my wife and some with my grandmother and aunt.

I've been able to experience life this last week. But I also miss my dog and cat. The big thing is that I wonder what kind of mischief they are getting into.

My wife returned home a couple of days ago while I continued my trip away at a conference. Apparently, Jynx missed her so much that he kept her up most of her first night back. Is that what awaits me?

This spring, I returned from a business trip and Jynx pissed in my luggage. I hope that isn't what I am returning home to.

One bad thing about my trip is that I haven't found time to write. While getting away from it all does include getting away from writing, I miss it almost as much as I miss Jynx and Zailey.

I have found that there are other things in life that matter more than writing. Spending time with family and experiencing life is what really matters. Then again, writing is a big portion of my life. I will return to it soon!

it was a dark and scary night

Since we were traveling, Zailey was in a strange place. For some reason, she couldn't hold her pee for a full night like she usually does at home. I had to get up with her to let her out.

Going outside in the Ozark Mountains on a semi-secluded street, made for an eerie setting. Zailey would jump at the littlest of things. I mean, so what if a bat flew by us? Who cares that an unidentified large animal went crashing through the trees? (My suspicion is that it was a deer.) All of this was going on right around the time of the supermoon eclipse and that seemed to make things even stranger.

So Zailey would bark after these things or even squirrels and nuts falling from trees. Her bark has a high pitched shrill and not what I wanted to hear at three or four in the morning when I was barely awake.

Most of my writing has a dark theme or element. While I don't think that my stuff is scary, some stories make you think twice about certain things. For example, if a dog is barking at some unseen thing, it makes a person think that something bad is around the corner.

At one point, I became convinced that a small black bear or a large panther was in the darkness. I couldn't get a good look at it since it was so dark out. Adding to my fear was that all I had for protection was this little blue heeler puppy. So if something was lurking, the dog would get picked off easily if it was trying to get to me.

I've had worse nightmares than this. I've even written a couple of them. But this was in reality that I was twisting it in my mind. The only thing I could do was calm the dog, let her finish her business, and then go back inside at a leisurely pace. There was no reason to lose my wits.

Even when it is scary, a good imagination is a good thing. Right? Well except for Zailey's shrill of a bark. Comment about a scary situation of your own and whether you think it was a good or bad thing.

leash

Zailey is on a trip to Arkansas. The place where we are staying does not have a fenced in yard. So we had to put a stake in the ground to tie her with.

In trying this setup out, I threw her favorite toy. It went a bit far and Zailey went after it at full speed. Unbeknownst to me, she had gone around me to go after it. The leash caught at me feet and Zailey's leash hit its limit. The resulting flip really scared me. It was a hard flip that could have hurt her neck.

I feel like I'm flipping at the end of my leash in editing my new collection of stories. I'm finding a lot more things that wrong than I expected. I keep going, though.

Zailey keeps playing with her toy on her leash. We are both unstoppable.

life jacket

My wife wanted me to get Zailey a life jacket. She hoped to teach the dog to not be afraid of the water and to learn how to swim. This way we could take the dog with us on our boat.

When I got home with the life jacket, we decided to try it out on her right away. For one thing, we wanted to see if it would fit. It was a bit of a struggle to get it on her, but once I laid the life jacket on my lap and put Zailey on it upside down, I was able to tighten up the straps to where they needed to be. My wife thought it looked like I was putting a diaper on a baby.

After the life jacket was on, I put Zailey down to see what she would do. She seemed fine with it, but thought that a couple of the straps might be chew things. Admonishing her got her to quit chewing.

Then Jynx saw the dog and went beserk. You would have thought the cat had never seen Zailey before in his life. The cat poofed up all its fur, arched his back, and stood on the tips of his toes. He then started hissing and yowling like I'd never seen before. It was hard to not laugh.

Zailey was afraid of the cat all of a sudden. Here it was, they were trying to kill each other not five minutes before this. Now they were scared of one another. Jynx was even able to corner Zailey for a little bit.

In assuming a certain schedule that has now changed, I've found that I'm also backed into a corner. One of my writing groups meets two Wednesdays a month and my other one meets every other Wednesday. Some months they meet the same day, so I go to the one I've been going to the longest when that happens.

Originally, I was going to be able to make it to both writing groups in the next two months since their schedules were opposite. With my schedule changes, I won't be able to attend one group.

All of a sudden, my novel that I have been working ahead on to accommodate all of these sessions will not be needed. I also had a chance to read ahead in my last group session, so now I don't have as much material for my main group.

All of this is coming at a time where I am doing my final edits of Dark Matter, my new collection of stories. Consequently, I'm just going to have to plan for having enough material for my next session and not plan ahead until my collection is in the hands of the editor. This is exactly where I didn't want to be.

I need my own life jacket to keep afloat. Even though my writing deadlines are arbitrary, I don't want to sacrifice them. Unlike Zailey in her life jacket, I'm coming out of the corner fighting. I'm going to get my stuff done!

who needs sleep anyway?

This morning Jynx woke me up at 4:45 by jumping on me. The rude awakening was then complemented by him trying to unplug my phone. In doing this, he was banging his tags on my nightstand. This made it impossible to go back to sleep.

After knocking the cat off the nightstand, I then covered my charging cord so that he couldn't get to it anymore. He went back to jumping on me and laying on me. Since I wasn't asleep anymore, I obliged in petting him. I finally fell back asleep about the time my alarm went off at 6:30. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired today.

Maybe being tired has made me loopy. I've had several ideas today. Not many have been the best of ideas, but I've had some good ones. It's made for some interesting developments. Nothing blog worthy, yet (maybe if one or two pan out, I'll blog about them later).

At the end of the day, I'm still mad at the cat even though his actions did lead to some good. I would rather have slept all the way to my alarm! It's hard getting work done as tired as I am!